Shekhawat humiliating state over Jal Jeevan Mission: Joshi

Jaipur: Cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi while addressing the media on Thursday targeted Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on the progress of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in the state and ERCP issue. He said that Shekhawat has been disrespecting the state and its efforts in the JJM project and has not helped the state to expedite the work. The minister said that Shekhawat should help the state but is creating obstacles for Rajasthan.
“The Union minister is working to humiliate the state regarding the Jal Jeevan Mission, which is an insult to the people of the state. Being a representative of the state, he should have brought additional help. Rajasthan has done commendable work in Jal Jeevan Mission despite all adverse circumstances. Our geographical conditions are odd. Two-thirds of the vast area here is desert and per capita availability of water is also minimal. Due to the scattered population of the state, a lot of money has to be spent on each water connection and that takes some minimum time. Despite this, a total of 42.45 lakh water connections have been given in the state under JJM.”
He further said that till the announcement of the mission, the number of rural households having tap water connections in the state was 11,74,131, which is 11%.
“While in Gujarat it was 71%, 33% in Maharashtra and 58% in Haryana rural households already had water connections, Rajasthan has given a total of 30.43 lakh new connections in the last three years. With this, Rajasthan is ranked 12th in the country in JJM, whereas in terms of expenditure the state is in second place with an expenditure of Rs 16,586 crore. While giving water connections we also have to think about the source as Rajasthan is not a state with perennial availability of water,” said Joshi.
On ERCP, Joshi said, “This time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ajmer, it seemed that he would declare it as a national project, but he did not do that. Being a Union minister, Shekhawat could have given his opinion to the PM, but it seems like he has a phobia from the PM. He is not working to get the people of Rajasthan their rights from the ERCP.”
The minister also said that the Union minister does not know in which conditions the department staff works and comments from him demotivate them.
On the ongoing ED investigation in the state, Joshi said that whichever state has elections coming up, central agencies like ED, Income Tax start investigations.